The Chicago Bears need Caleb Williams to improve, particularly in terms of his accuracy. The simplest solution is for Williams to take the layups from what Bears head coach Ben Johnson has built into the offense and what defenses give him.
However, the other solution–the more difficult to achieve–requires Williams’ teammates picking up the slack to help their third-year QB.
Given how the Bears have operated this offseason, they have faith in the group to do just that.
Bears’ Caleb Williams Gets Telling Information
Bears’ WRs Let Caleb Williams Down Often
For all of the talk about Williams’ accuracy, which ranked second-lowest among qualifiers, with the Bears’ QB finishing ahead of only J.J. McCarthy, his counterpart on the NFC North rival Minnesota Vikings, his receivers did him few favors according to a recently shared metric.
Sharp Football Analysis’ Warren Sharp ranked every team by percentage of incompletions caused by receiver error.
The Bears had the sixth-highest rate.
That is in addition to tying for the fourth-highest drop rate, per Pro Football Reference.
Only the Jacksonville Jaguars, Denver Broncos, Cleveland Browns, New York Giants, and Washington Commanders were worse in Sharp’s metric. The New York Jets joined the Broncos and Jaguars in having higher drop rates than the Bears.
Williams has acknowledged his role in improving his completion percentage, which will take the Bears’ offense to even greater heights than they achieved in 2025.
Bears Moving With Confidence at WR
The most significant change the Bears made to Williams’ WR corps was trading DJ Moore to the Buffalo Bills, showing tremendous confidence in their room. They signed former Detroit Lions wideout Kalif Raymond in free agency, and he is expected to have a significant role under Johnson, his former offensive coordinator in Detroit.
Raymond is not a one-for-one replacement for Moore, even with the latter coming off back-to-back seasons of decline.
Instead, the Bears hope 2025 second-round pick Luther Burden III continues his upward trend.
The same is true of Rome Odunze, Williams’ draft classmate in 2024, but he is navigating a “new reality” thanks to the foot injuries he dealt with last season. Behind Burden, Odunze, and Raymond, the Bears have second-year man Jahdae Walker and rookie Zavion Thomas.
There are others, but those five figure to be the closest things to locks for spots on the depth chart during the regular season.
Burden’s 6.7% drop rate trailed only Walker’s 10% rate among returning Bears receivers.
Walker’s average depth of target was the fourth-highest on the team, offering some context in his defense amid his high drop rate. Burden’s ADoT was seventh on the team out of 13 players, one of them being Williams himself.
If Burden is going to be the replacement for Moore that he has been set up to be, being on the same page with Williams is paramount.
They have good chemistry already, and could get to great with a strong training camp.
